The present invention relates to heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems of buildings; and more particularly to personal environment components of such building systems which provide conditioned air to a person""s work space.
A personal work area unit for controlling the environment at a work space, such as an employee""s desk or cubicle, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,397. The unit is located beneath a work surface and includes a pair of air inlets. One inlet is connected to a duct of the building""s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system to receive conditioned air. The other inlet of the personal work area unit receives ambient air from the room in which the module is located. Two dampers control the ratio of conditioned air to ambient air drawn into the module by a pair of fans and mixed within the module. The mixed air is directed through one or more outlet ducts which lead to a pair of vents located in housings on the work space surface.
A control panel also is located on the work surface of the cubicle or desk and has a number of controls for regulating the air flow. Specifically, a control is provided to regulate the speed of the fans and another control governs the dampers to vary the mixture of conditioned air and ambient air. Other controls may be provided to vary the intensity of lighting within the work space and operate a conventional background environment control unit generator to produce a sound which masks ambient noise
Another control operates a radiant heater located beneath the work surface to provide a localized heating.
An infrared occupancy sensor is provided to detect the presence of a worker within the work space and activate the personal work area unit.
The personal work area unit allows an individual employee to control the environment of his or her work space. This type of system is specially desirable in a large open area where the work spaces are defined by cubicles as the system permits each worker to set the environment of the individual cubicle.
One of the drawbacks of a personal work area unit is the amount of the work surface that is occupied by the vent housings and control panel. This is especially a problem in open-plan office designs, such as where a large floor area is subdivided with cubicles.
A general object of the present invention is to provide an environment system which allows an individual employee to control the environment of his or her work space.
Another object is to provide such a environment system which occupies a minimal amount of the work space.
A further object of the present invention is to integrate components of the environment system with those of a personal computer.
These and other objectives are satisfied by employing an flow control device to regulate the air flow within the work space. A controller operates the flow control device in response to data received via a computer network which interconnects computers and printers within the building. In the preferred embodiment, the regulated air flow is emitted from diffusers attached to a display monitor of a personal computer within the work space.
The personal computer is connected to the computer network and executes a graphical user interface program. That graphical user interface program displays a control panel on a screen of the personal computer and enables a worker to alter an environmental parameter setting by changing symbols located on the control panel. The personal computer transmits data representing the environmental parameter setting from the personal computer to the controller via the computer network. The controller responds to the data from the personal computer by operating a flow control device.
The controller may govern environmental parameters such as air flow rate, temperature, lighting intensity and noise masking within the work space.